After the end
by AngryAsari
Summary: Picking up right after the events of the third game, Shepard's crew begin to gather themselves and deal with the repercussions of the life-changing war.


All they saw was a red light, and suddenly all the creatures tearing apart the last of the alliance forces fell to their feet. The reapers were consumed by their own weight and destroyed, the second human spectre, Kaidan Alenko was the first one to realize the change in the air, it was colder all of a sudden, and the fog that for him defined how he pictured the british capital in his mind had begun to settle back in around the bodies piling on the streets.

He also knew that he would never see his friend again, and that the war was over. He put his gun down on the ground and looked around for a friendly face, the fire from the battle was dying down, he could barely make out the entrance to the run down building were a while ago Commander Shepard had given them all hope again, he could still hear her words, "This war's brought us pain and suffering and loss."

Kaidan made his way through the rubble helping up those who couldn't stand on their own, clearing out some rocks so that the vehicles could move and start the long process of recovery, the counting of the losses. "But it's also brought us together, as soldiers, allies, friends." While he walked he noticed a familiar arm sticking out from a collapsed window, the arm was thin and covered in tattoos, he recognized one of a woman's face and yelled "JACK!", hysterically he started moving the stones as fast as he could, she opened her eyes and said in a drowned almost whisper "hey boy scout". Kaidan started to slowly pull her out with the help of some other soldiers who were, like him, trying to find survivors.

She was unconscious but brething, he gathered her up in his arms and took her inside to shelter her from the night, for a minute he just stared at her, watching the cold air come out of her nose as if it was cigarette smoke. "This bond that ties us together is something the reapers will never understand."

Jack slowly opened her eyes, it took her a minute of looking around at what remained of the roof to focus her sight on Kaidan who was at most 1 feet away from her with her hand between his fingers. "The kids..." she said, "where are my kids?" while her voice getting more body and impact started to rise. "I'm sure they're fine, you had them in the back right? providing support for Grunt's company? that was a smart choice", she looked at his face smiling through the clear grief in his eyes "It wasn't me, that was her call" Jack said, "What was?" "Keeping them in the back, that was Shephard...did she get out?". Kaidan could tell by her voice and the way she avoided his eyes after asking that she already knew the answer "No, no that we know yet".

"It's more powerful than any weapon, stronger than any ship, it can't be taken or destroyed".

Jack got up slowly and put her arm around Kaidan's neck, together they began walking towards where they last saw the beacon that took everything to the citadel. While they made their way through the rubble and the bodies of what seemed like countless husks and cannibals Kaidan's comm system reactivated and almost immediatly he heard a voice "Alenko, it's Vega, we're east of the beacon and i have Javik with me but Liara...i can't get her to stop, we need help", Kaidan patched Jack into the feed and looked at her, clearly puzzled she responded with a shrug and a nod telling him to ask what James meant.

"I mean Liara, she's clearing the street of bodies and stones with her biotics but she's been lifting bigger and bigger debris and dropping them wherever, she almost crushed two Turian pilots, i don't think she meant to of course but they told us that Shepard and Anderson were impossible to reach and they were most likely gone, we knew it but none of us wanted to say it, she got so angry, i've never seen her like this, not since Thessia...look man you've known her for a lot longer than i have, maybe you can talk her down before the prothean down here makes it worst"


End file.
